Patriots' Ebner says Olympics experience was 'pretty cool'

Patriots special teamer-safety Nate Ebner attempts to make the transition back to football after competing on the U.S. men's rugby team at Rio de Janeiro.

Glen Farley The Enterprise @GFarley_ent

FOXBORO – There was absolutely no mistaking Nate Ebner as he made his way through the Patriots locker room at Gillette Stadium late Sunday morning.

He was the guy wearing U.S. Olympic team shorts and a USA cap turned backwards.

Hey, the Patriots special teamer-safety earned them.

“I’d say it was probably what I thought it would be,” Ebner said of his experience at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. “I don’t know. I didn’t go in there with high expectations. I’ve never been to an Olympics before. I didn’t know what it would be like. I just knew we’d be training every day and we had a job to do and when you’re focused like that really that’s all that matters.

“I thought it was a cool experience to walk in the opening ceremonies and be in the Olympic village and see all the athletes that you’ve seen playing their sports in other arenas, if you will, but to bring it all together like that it was a pretty cool experience. But I didn’t have any ideas of what it should be or what it was going to be before I went into it.”

The first active NFL player to compete in the Summer Olympics, Ebner was a member of the U.S. men’s rugby team that went 3-2 and finished in ninth place in Rio.

The sport – rugby, that is – isn’t new to Ebner, who didn’t play football at Ohio’s Hilliard Davidson High School, but was a standout on the United States’ U-19 and U-20 national teams and the most valuable player at the Rugby World Cup as a member of the latter team in 2008.

One year later, Ebner walked on to the football team at Ohio State and finished his collegiate career as a scholarship player the Patriots deemed talented enough to select in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL Draft.

Now, he transitions back to what is actually his second sport.

“It was what was expected,” Ebner said of the move back to football he began last week. “I fully committed to the rugby team and once that job was completed I came here and whatever is on my plate is on my plate. I can’t really do anything about it. Just take it one step at a time, one day at a time and just get back on track with things really.”

Ebner’s first appearance at practice came last Tuesday when he was in uniform (but not in pads) at training camp. Still working his way back into football shape (the weight change he incurred in his transition to rugby was “nothing crazy” he said), Ebner did not appear in the Patriots’ 23-22 preseason win over the Chicago Bears at Gillette Stadium last Thursday night.

“I didn’t really have to drop weight,” said Ebner. “You just kind of take the training on for what it is and whatever happens to your body as you go through it, how ever your body needs to morph to be able to handle that amount of running, that type of training, it just kind of takes shape itself. I did change a little bit, but it wasn’t as dramatic as I thought it would be or has been in the past when I’ve played rugby.”

Ebner said he was appreciative of the support he received from the Patriots, which included a public display by head coach Bill Belichick and members of the team’s coaching staff, who, at the suggestion of safeties coach Steve Belichick, wore T-shirt’s bearing the player’s name and rugby number (12) to practice on Aug. 9.

“Just from the amount of support that my teammates showed me, texting me and calling me and seeing how things were going and even the coaches, the support they showed me through the whole thing, not just the Olympics but all the other tours and asking me how my journey was going in the Olympic camp, I can’t say enough about these guys here,” said Ebner “It meant the world to me to have that support, especially in a very difficult training environment out there in California.”

Ebner’s memories stretch from California to Rio.

Here is a 27-year-old whose athletic career includes suiting up for a Super Bowl championship win and having competed in a Summer Olympics.

“Very different, but similar at the same time. Very cool in their own right,” Ebner said of the two experiences. “Being part of the Super Bowl, that’s a great experience, unique and special for football and the teammates and everyone here, but the Olympics is a completely different thing and that was also extremely special in its own right as well. So both very memorable experiences for sure.”

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